The present invention relates generally to materials management, and more particularly, to a method, system, and storage medium for facilitating a transport scheme in an automated material handling system environment.
In a production environment, there are quantities of materials that sit idle in local storage (e.g., stockers) until a production machine is ready to receive them. When there is a large amount of materials in a given production line, the local stockers can become filled to capacity and the production area becomes backed up. In order to free up space in the production environment, many of these materials are transported to a centralized storage location until they are needed. Automated material handling systems (AMHSs) provide some assistance in managing the transport of these materials within a production area. AMH systems generally consist of material handling equipment and a material control system. The material handling equipment manages the flow of materials, while the control system manages the flow of information relating to these materials. Where an automated material handling system (AMHS) is employed, these idle materials are often automatically transferred to central storage when a stocker is full, regardless of whether the materials will be needed by the production line soon.
This process can result in unnecessary transport, both to the central storage location and back to production, of the materials in cases where the production equipment requires these materials in a short period of time. As central storage may be located a significant distance away from the production area, additional costs are incurred in transporting these materials. These costs include the actual cost of transport (e.g., capital cost, storage fees, overhead, wear and tear, floor space, and support) and the costs of additional cycle time and reduced equipment utilization, since a process tool may sit idle waiting for work to arrive.
What is needed, therefore, is a way to intelligently determine and execute the transport requirements for materials in a production environment.